The present invention relates in general to a bandage for covering a particular part of a patient's body such that a desired area can be exposed for view while it is also allowed to heal.
Although the opaque bandage has long been in use, its design suffers from several drawbacks. First, the patient or person treating the patient has no idea how well the wound is healing until the bandage is entirely removed. Second, removal of the bandage increases the danger that the scab or skin covering the wound will be removed along with the bandage. Another drawback is that many bandages fail to adequately aerate the wound. In such instances, the healing of the wound is much slower. Finally, a drawback to many conventional bandages is that part of the wound area is contacted by an adhesive portion of the bandage. Thus, when the bandage is removed, the tacky surface of the bandage will possibly harm the partially healed area.
To date, a number of bandages have been devised which attempt to solve some or all of these drawbacks. However, each of these approaches either involves a complex, difficult to use construction, or fails to provide an adequate solution to some or all of the above problems.
For example, the 3-M Company markets a transparent bandage under the trademarked name "TEGADERM" Transparent Dressing. The bandage consists of a transparent air and vapor permeable film that has the surface of one side entirely coated with an adhesive. The bandage comes supplied with a releasable paper frame adhered to the non-adhesive side of the sheet. The frame is used to maintain the integrity of the bandage's shape before it is applied to the patient's skin, whereupon the frame is removed. Although the "TEGADERM" bandage is relatively simple in its construction, the adhesive surface may harm the healing tissue when the bandage is removed. Moreover, water or contaminants may seep into the wound site from the sides of the bandage.
Another transparent bandage is sold under the registered trademark "VENI-GARD" by the Conmed Corporation. "VENI-GARD" is a disposable dressing for holding an I.V. needle or catheter in a patient's vein. The "VENI-GARD" provides a sterile barrier over the puncture site and incorporates transparent semi-permeable membrane material as the covering over the site. The purpose of the transparent membrane is to allow unobstructed visualization of the puncture locus while at the same time enabling the evaporation of any moisture that collects around the puncture site. However, the construction of the VENI-GARD bandage is complex. Further, the membrane is coated with an adhesive that renders the VENI-GARD unsuitable for use in covering a wound because the adhesive surface may harm the healing tissue when the bandage is removed.
Another example of a transparent bandage is shown in the Gordon patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,341,208. The Gordon bandage has a transparent window and a flexible frame for adhering the window to the patient's skin. Thus, unlike "VENI-GARD," the Gordon bandage does not contact the adhesive layer to the wound. However, the material used with the window does not allow for the passage of air or moisture from the patient's skin to the exterior surface of the bandage. Moreover, the construction of the Gordon bandage requires a multiple layered window which employs an applicator layer adjacent to the transparent layer. The applicator spaces the window from the skin by the thickness of the frame which is not as sterile as an adjacent film because the spaced film traps air or other substances adjacent to the skin.
Another transparent bandage is illustrated by the Klein patent, U.S. Pat. No. 2,273,873. The Klein bandage involves a transparent adhesive sheet adapted to be used as a dressing for a wound. The wound is not sealed from outside contaminants since air passages are provided along portions of the frame of the bandage. In addition, the transparent material used in Klein bandage is not air or vapor permeable, and the sheet does not contact the skin.
The Linsky et al. patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,181,127, illustrates a non-adherent wound dressing employing an absorbent pad border that removes moisture from the area around the wound. A transparent film covers the wound and has its edges overlapped by an adhesive frame. However, the film is placed on top of the frame rather than below it, the materials of the frame are primarily webbing, and the film is an imperforate material that does offer the advantages of a transparent air/vapor permeable barrier.
The Merriam et al. patent, U.S. Pat. No. 2,949,443, illustrates a water vapor permeable dressing applied directly to a surgical wound. The material is primarily transparent and water and vapor permeable. However, the material is either applied to the skin through the use of an adhesive layer formed along the outer edge of the dressing, or through the application of an alcohol solvent applied to the skin directly. This construction does not adhere strongly and may easily come loose from the wound area.
The Faasse, Jr. patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,744,355, discloses a hinged releasable wound dressing in which a thin flexible polymeric film having an adhesive layer coated on one side of the bandage is applied directly to the site of the wound. The Faasse, Jr. bandage has the drawback of directly contacting the wound with adhesive which could cause the healing layer of skin to be pulled up when the bandage is removed.
Finally, the Dellas bandage illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,485,809 provides for a transparent moisture vapor permeable film dressing. As in Faasse, Jr., the Dellas film also employs a skin adhesive in order to directly contact the dressing to the patient's skin. Therefore, the construction of the Dellas dressing can cause tearing of the partially healed wound when the dressing is removed from the patient's skin.